Mental-health agency wants to buy lumberyard

KALAMAZOO -- A local social-services agency wants to acquire a former lumberyard in downtown Kalamazoo that's been vacant since 2005.

Kalamazoo Community Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services has offered to buy the former Johnson-Howard Lumber Co. property at 500 N. Edwards St., but the sale has not closed, said Susan Horrocks, owner of the property.

Horrocks, whose father started the lumber business in the 1950s, said she hoped the sale would be finalized next month. The property was listed for sale at $400,000, but Horrocks said she recently cut the price in half.

"There have been half a dozen or a dozen outfits that have been interested in it over the years," she said, "but they've all fallen through."

Jeff Patton, executive director of Community Mental Health, said the agency is looking to consolidate its three separate facilities at one location.

"What the intent would be, should this occur -- and I want to stress the 'should this occur' -- would be to put all those divisions under one roof," he said.

Community Mental Health, a government-funded authority that provides mental-health and substance-abuse services in the county, operates training and emergency services at a building on West Kalamazoo Avenue, administration and services for people with developmental disabilities at a building on Gull Road, and children's services at a Crosstown Parkway location.

"The whole idea would be to increase efficiencies in our physical plant," Patton said.

The agency employs 200 workers, he said. Its board of directors still must approve the purchase, he said, but he's hopeful the deal can be closed in the next month.

The structures on the lumberyard property, which include sheds and a 25,000-square-foot warehouse, would be razed and a new facility constructed, Patton said. Community Mental Health has not explored how much a new building would cost or how it would be paid for, he said.

Horrocks, of Portage, said the property has been listed for sale since 1995, when it was leased by Erb Lumber. Erb consolidated its Kalamazoo and Paw Paw lumberyards and moved them to a Plainwell site in 2003, but it continued to lease space at the Kalamazoo property until 2005, she said.